A FATHER is donning his running shoes on behalf of the hospital unit which helped save his prematurely-born son.

Mick Daniels, who confesses to “not being a natural runner”, plans to jog along the Jurassic coastline on March 21 to raise funds for the SNICU department of Musgrove Park Hospital.

Mick’s son, Samuel, who is now six months old, was born ten weeks early but Mick said thanks to the fantastic nurses and doctors from the unit, his son is now doing well.

Mick, who lives in North Petherton, said: “The love and support from family members, closest friends and newfound friends helped us through the weeks.

“The nurses on the unit became our sounding board and it really was a privilege to see them go about their normal business close up.

“We developed some great relationships with the nurses and doctors in the unit and in a strange way felt sad to say goodbye to them once Samuel was ready to come home at the end of June, so this is a huge thank you to them.”

The Jurassic Coast Challenge, which runs from March 21-23 involves 78.6 miles of either running, walking or crawling along the south coast.

On the first day, Mick will run 26.4 miles from Charmouth to Portland Ferry Road, then on day two he faces a gruelling 26.7-mile course to Lulworth Cove, with the challenge finishing on a 27.7-mile route to Shell Bay in Poole.

Mike says the longest distance he had run before he started his training for this challenge was 13.1 miles and admitted even that distance was tough.

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